After working hard for last few months along with other organizers including INFITT Chair Dr.Kalyanasundaram, Prof.Ulrike Niklas, Mr.Kavi Arasan, Dr.Vasu Rengathan & others, I am happy to participate today in the inauguration of TIC 2009 in the campus of University of Cologne, Germany.  The Eighth Tamil Internet Conference TIC 2009 and the first in Europe was inaugurated few hours back with the august presence of Prof.Dr.Bongartz (Dean of Philosophical Faculty of Univ. of COLOGNE) & Prof.M.Anandakrishnan (Chair, Tamilnadu Govt. Delegation & Former VC, Anna University). The 3 day conference is being hosted by the Institute of Indology and Tamil Studies of the University of Cologne in Germany is being held from October 23-25, 2009.

The conference got underway with the address of the co-chairs of the event Dr.Kalyanasundram (INFITT) and Prof.Ulrike Niklas (Institute of Indology and Tamil Studies-IITS). Prof.Urlike highlighted that IITS hosts the largest Tamil books collection of over 60,000 which is the largest outside Tamilnadu. Dr.Kalyanasundram recalled the founding of INFITT in 2000, the objectives and the past 7 conferences held around the world (Singapore, Chennai, Malaysia, USA) and the outcomes.

In the plenary session talks, Mr.Muthu Nedumaran (Malaysia, Former Chair INFITT) to the excitement of the audience demonstrated Tamil enabling 3G Mobile devices such as iPhone, Android, Nokia for News applications. Prof. A.G.Ramakrishnan (Indian Institute of Science, Benguluru) demonstrated a major technical breakthrough of live changing implications for the blind and illiterate through IT. The audience were spell bound when Prof.Ramakrihnan’s computer read out a text from a Tamil book (Text to Speech) and then recognized his handwriting on the screen. Prof.Thomas Malten (IITS) showed the various online Sanskrit, Tamil Dictionaries made available by IITS, the University of Cologne has made available the tools used to prepare these texts.

About INFITT

INFITT (International Forum for Information Technology in Tamil) is a global, non-governmental, non-profit organization registered in California, USA. In Tamil known as "உத்தமம்" (உலகத் தகவல் தொழில்நுட்ப மன்றம்). Its main objective is to promote Tamil computing worldwide by bringing together professionals working in the area of Tamil IT, Tamil IT enthusiasts, Tamil Research Scholars and ordinary Tamils so that Tamils can enjoy the benefits of all IT developments natively in the Tamil environment. To meet this objective, INFITT maintains several working groups on key technical areas of Tamil IT and organizes annually Tamil Internet Conferences in different parts of the world. More details at www.infitt.org

It is my birthday today (I am not telling how old I am) and I am in Cologne, Germany attending Tamil Internet Conference 2009 away from my family & friends, missing the gifts they might have given me :-)

Anyways, Mr.Steve Ballmer didn’t disappoint me. He has given me a wonderful gift – he has released Windows 7 today. No doubt Windows 7 is getting raving reviews, it got released on my birthday!. On a serious note, I have been using Windows 7 for almost two months now in my laptop (Apple MacBook Air) and my Quad-Core x64 Desktop and it is simply the best OS I have ever used in last two decades. I like its fast boot, fast response time for common tasks, lovely wallpapers/background, Aero effect, quick search, easy to find devices/printers applet and libraries.

And I love those Windows 7 commercials featuring the cute little girl – Kylie, don’t miss those videos here. 

The other day one of my colleagues asked me how he can have emails from a distribution list sent to him, go automatically to certain people even when he hasn’t downloaded the emails in his MS Outlook client. A server-side rule can be setup by the individual in their own MS Outlook client itself. Here are the steps I gave him.

1. Launch Microsoft Office Outlook, Select "Tools" Menu
2. Select "Rules & Alerts" Option
3. Press "New Rule" Button
4. Select "Start from a Blank Rule" -> "Check Messages when they arrive"
   
5. Check "Sent to People or Distribution List". Then at the bottom (Step 2), click on the blue link "People or Distribution List"
   
6. Type in the "To" Textbox ABC@EMAIL.COM (Type the distribution list email ID, it is fine if this ID is not listed in the address book). Press OK.
7. Scroll down and ensure to have UNCHECKED "on this machine only" option. Enabling this option makes the rule run only when you have downloaded the email in your Outlook client. Leaving it Unchecked makes this a server rule. This runs every time an mail hits your Exchange Server, it is not necessary for you to be in office or have got the email in your Outlook client
8. Select "Forward it to People or Distribution List". In the below options (Step 2), click on the hyperlink for People or Distribution list
   
9. Enter the intended recipients email IDs. Press OK. Press Next
10. In the next dialog box titled “Exceptions”,  include any exceptions you may have or otherwise skip the dialog box by pressing Next
11. Press Finish, give a Title and complete the wizard

“கணிவழி காண்போம் தமிழ்"

This year Tamil Internet Conference 2009 is happening in City of Koeln, Germany from October 23-25, 2009.TIC is annual Technical conference on Tamil IT topics organized by INFITT (உத்தமம்) in which I proudly serve as Vice-Chair currently. Tamil Internet Conferences of INFITT has been held earlier in Chennai (1999,2003)Singapore (2000, 2004), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2001) and in San Francisco, California (2002). TIC 2009 will be the first conference to be held in Europe.

TIC 2009 will be a technical conference devoted to discussing recent advances and challenges in Tamil Computing and Tamil Internet in general. To permit max. interaction, participation will be limited to 100-120 persons. We invite Tamil IT professionals worldwide to participate in this conference - only one of its kind devoted exclusively for Tamil. Please register immediately here to attend the event.

The TIC 2009 is being organized in close collaboration with the Institute of Indology and Tamil Studies (IITS) of the University of Koeln who will serve as the local host. IITS, headed by Prof. Ulrike Niklas is one of the major Tamil Studies and Research Center of Europe. The following are the 11 tracks that will happen during the conference with about 60 speakers from around the world (a major contingent from India):

1. Computer Assisted Learning and Teaching of Tamil
2. Tamil Diaspora, Teaching Tamil as a second-language and impact of Technology
3. Tamil Portal: Blogger, Aggregator, Wikipedia
4. Tamil localization, Tamil keyboard, open-source software
5. Natural Language Processing: OCR, Information Retrieval, Artificial Intelligence
6. Tamil in handheld, mobile phones, Tamil for special needs
7. Preparation E-Texts, Corpora, Search Engines
8. Computational Linguistics
9. Natural Language Processing: Morphological Tagger
10. Database of Tamil technical terms and glossaries
11. Online Database of Tamil literature, Tamil Dictionaries and Search Engines

Today as Vice-Chair I was asked to record a 3 minute video clip inviting our European friends to the conference, you can see the video below:

I had purchased the DVD of this movie “An American Affair” sometime back, but never watched it till today. I can’t recall on why I bought this movie as I haven’t heard or read about it; nor I could recognize from the names any of the actors of the movie. The only reason I can think of is probably I thought the movie was about Marilyn Monroe. It turned out to be not. The movie set in 1963 was about adolescent attraction of a school boy to his new neighbour - a pretty lady who has relationship with then U.S. President John F.Kennedy.

I try hard but nothing I am able to remember or say that is great about the movie. A boring movie with an average coverage of a Thirteen-year-old boy’s adolescent yearnings.

வார விடுமுறை, என் சகோதரிகள் மற்றும் அவர்களின் பிள்ளைகள் வந்திருந்தார்கள். பேசிக் கொண்டிருந்தப் போது திடிரேனயுதித்த யோசனையின்று சினிமாவிற்கு போகலாமென்று. எதிர்ப்பார்த்த மாதிரி சத்தியம்/ஐனாக்ஸ் திரையரங்களில் டிக்கெட் இல்லை. இணையத்தில் பார்த்ததில் மயாஜாலில் 3:10 காட்சிக்கு டிக்கெட் கிடைத்தது. காரை எடுத்துக் கொண்டு தி.தி. என்று மாம்பலத்திலிருந்து கிழக்கு கடற்கரை சாலை (30 கி.மி.) சென்றோம். எங்கள் பயணம் வீண் போகவில்லை, கமல் ஏமாற்றவில்லை. ஒரு நல்ல படத்தை அழகாக கொடுத்துள்ளார். ரொம்ப இழுக்காமல், முன்கதைகளுக்குச் செல்லாமல் ஒன்னே முக்கால் மணியளவில் ஒரு ஆங்கிலப்பட பாணியில் படத்தை கொடுத்துள்ளார் இயக்குனர் சக்கிரி டோளேட்டி. மோகன்லால் அலட்டிக் கொல்லாமல் தன் பாத்திரத்தைச் செய்துள்ளார். வசனம் சில வாரங்களுக்கு முன் நான் படித்து ரொம்பவே ரசித்த மூன்று விரல் புத்தகத்தின் ஆசிரியர் இரா.முருகன் தான், நச்சென்று ஆழமாகவும் ஆழகாகவும் இருந்தது. அனைவருக்கும் பாராட்டுக்கள்.

படத்தின் விமர்சனத்தை ஏற்கனவே பலர் தங்களின் வலைப்பூக்களில் என்னை விட நன்றாக சொல்லிவிட்டதால் அதன் முகவரிகள் இங்கே: Cable சங்கர் வலைப்பக்கம், Prakash வலைப்பக்கம், விவசாயி வலைப்பக்கம்.

உன்னைப் போல் ஒருவன் – நல்ல படம், பார்க்க வேண்டியப் படம்.

வாங்கி ரொம்ப நாட்கள் ஆயினும் போன வாரம் தான் இரா.முருகன் அவர்கள் எழுதிய கிழக்கு பதிப்பகத்தின் இந்த புத்தகத்தைப் (முன்று விரல்) படித்தேன். அரம்பித்த பிறகு முழுவதும் முடிக்கும் வரைக் கீழே வைக்கவே முடியவில்லை. அவ்வளவு சுவாரஸ்யம், யதார்தம். 

மென்பொருள் தொழில் சார்ந்தவர்களைப் பற்றி சாதாரண நடையில் எழுதியிருப்பது புத்தகத்தின் சிறப்பு. நானும் மென்பொருள் தொழிலில் இருப்பதால் கதாப்பாத்திரங்களின் கஷ்டங்களை உணர்வுகளை நன்றாக உணர முடிகிறது.

ஒவ்வொரு காட்சியும் என் கண் முன்னே நடந்ததுப் போல உணர்த்தேன். நான் நாவல்கள் அவ்வளவாக படிக்க மாட்டேன், இருந்தும் ரொம்ப ரசித்தேன்.

நாய் வளர்ப்போர் சங்கத்தின் மென்பொருளை லண்டனில் கதாநாயகன் நிறுவும் போது நடக்கும் நிகழ்ச்சிகள் நல்ல நகைச்சுவை, ரொம்பவும் ரசிக்கும் படியிருந்தது. கதையின் முடிவு முற்றிலும் எதிர்பாராதது.

தமிழ் தெரிந்த அனைத்து மென்பொருள் வல்லுனர்களும் படித்து மகிழ வேண்டிய ஒரு புத்தகம். 

Today was the second AGM of our association – ITSME Association at Hotel Savera. The association was formed by an energetic team of SME entrepreneurs from Chennai few years back. The aim of the association is to provide a collective voice for the unique set of challenges that threaten the growth of Small & Medium IT companies in India; learn from best practises and foster a community. 

A new team of Executive Committee took charge today under the leadership of Mr.V.Subramanian as President, Mr.Ananth Seshan as Vice President, Mrs.Sarada Ramani as Treasurer. I wish them all the best in their efforts this year.

Today’s AGM was followed by a special business session with a talk by Mr.P.W.C.Davidar IAS, IT Secretary to Government of Tamilnadu. Mr.Davidar gave a good talk on the efforts of Tamilnadu government for IT industry in general and in particular handling the present global meltdown. I was surprised to see a down to earth and a pragmatic talk by a government bureaucrat. Few highlights of his talk:

• Govt. of Tamilnadu with Elcot as the nodal agency for all E-Governance project / IT procurement has lowered the entry barrier to allow SMEs to easily participate in the bids. For example it is now allowed for a Rs.30 Lakh turnover firm to bid for a Rs.10 Lakh tender and so on.
• Govt. is looking favourably at specialized firms with niche expertise (for each project) as an important criteria while awarding projects than blindly going for larger firms
• All tenders in Elcot website are fully administered electronically, all bid openings can be accessed from anywhere from the world through the website
• Many of the SEZ in Tier-2, Tier-3 cities in Tamilnadu getting good response. The lands are now allocated in lots as low as 2 Acres. Government has realized that smaller allocation makes better use of the land and more employment
• Talked about the Citizen Computer Centres that Tamilnadu Govt. is setting in various parts of the state; for the success of those and to be self-sustaining economically it is important those franchisees have Entrepreneur skills apart from the Technical pre requisites. Govt. has provided these centres with thousands of URLs of central & state government services that are now available over the web 
• Five districts have been declared as e-districts, where all the government functions/communications will be in digital format and appropriate connectivity are being setup
• Due to global melt-down there are thousands of floor space of IT offices are lying vacant in Chennai and other places, to help these be sold/leased and to provide a marketplace for them and for businesses from outside the state to setup business here easily, Elcot is building an web service to be released soon

Being a long weekend, we decided to go out for few days from city. I generally like going to beach resorts near Chennai in ECR road for a peaceful stay. Since I had been to GRT Temple Bay & Fisherman’s Cove in Mamallapuram, Ashok Resort in Pondy I looked out for a different resort. After reading about Dune in The Man magazine, I narrowed down on Dune Eco Village in ECR Road at Pudhukuppam, Tamilnadu near Pondicherry University.

Dune is a Eco friendly resort with most of the materials used for construction being reused and with little chemicals as possible. They say they used more lime stone than cement, Solar water heaters, the doors & furniture are from old houses, no tar roads inside the property and so on. Each of the rooms are different than others and with unique characteristics, the room we stayed had a nice display of Golu (coincided with the seasonal holidays as well). The resort provides 2 cycles for each room for the guests to go around the huge property (over 30-40 acres) on the Bay of Bengal sea shore. The food in their F.U.N (Food U Need) restaurant promotes the hypotoxic diet of by a French biologist (from their brochure I learned his name was Doctor Jean Seignalet).

I liked the fact there was no Satellite connection in the room – so no boring TV Soaps and Serials that my wife can watch or the usual Pogo/Cartoon Network for my son. Each room had a small TV with built-in DVD Player and you can borrow DVDs from the restaurant for free, they boost a collection of over 1000+ titles on various Genres. They have programs to entertain the kids in evening like Milking the Cow, Pot Making, Sand Pit, etc.

The room rates are expensive especially for an Indian tourist, guess the rates are fixed primarily with Foreign tourists in mind (I am in disagreement to this practise, Indian Resorts and Hotels should make it attractive if India wants to attract more tourists, India happens to be the most expensive tourist destination even for Indian’s in South East Asia region). They also have programs for Meditation (everyday free for guests) & Ayurvedic Health treatments (some of which for 14 days were priced at few lakhs of rupees!)

The items where Dune has to improve:

1. ECO friendly tag doesn’t mean cutting corners in service & providing poor amenities – they need to improve on the quality of the Television, Cycles, Furniture's, Bathroom Amenities they provide
2. Providing a Mobile Phone to all guests instead of In-Room Intercom is a good idea, but they need to ensure the signal is good. I had to step out of the room every time when I needed to talk to reception or to FUN restaurant (which was very near to our room, so I went directly to speak to Chef)

Overall, I will certainly recommend Dune Eco Village for spending few days (not worth for shorter stays of 1 or 2 days) to relax. Service by staff was generally very friendly, good ambience and nice food.

ஒரு நல்ல தலைப்பை, ஒரு (பழைய) நல்ல படத்தின் பெயரை இப்படி ஒரு சுமாரான படமெடுத்து கெடுக்காமலிருந்திருக்கலாம்.

ஒரே கல்லூ‌ரியில் படித்தவர்கள் எட்டு ஆண்டுகளுக்குப் பின் மீண்டும் அதே கல்லூரியில் ஒன்று சேர்கிறார்கள், அப்போது ஒரு கொலை முயற்சி, அதற்குப் பின்னால் முன்பு நடந்த ஒரு கொலை, காதல்.  படிக்க சுவாரஸியமாக தெ‌ரியும் இந்த‌க் கதை தான் ‘நினைத்தாலே இனிக்கும்’ - மலையாளத்தில் வெளியான கிளாஸ்மேட் படத்திலிருந்து எடுத்தது. ஒரு நல்ல கதையை எப்படி எடுக்கக் கூடாது என்பதற்கு மிகச் சிறந்த உதாரணமாக இந்தப் படத்தை சொல்லலாம்.

எட்டு வருடங்களுக்குப் பிறகு சந்திக்கும் கதாபாத்திரங்களின் தோற்றங்களில் எந்த மாற்றமும் இல்லை. ஷக்தியை ஏன் எல்லோருக்கும் பிடிக்கும், அவர் அப்படி என்ன சாதனை செய்த மாணவர் என்பது புரியவில்லை; அதனால் அவரது மரணம் எந்த தாக்கத்தையும் ஏற்படுத்தவில்லை; ப்‌ரியாமணி பாத்திரத்தோடு ஒட்டவேயில்லை; ப்‌ரியாமணி-பிருத்விராஜ் காதலில் எந்த ஒரு அழுத்தமும் அவர்களுக்குள் ஒரு இற்பும் தெரிவில்லை.

மொத்தத்தில் இந்தப் படத்தைப் பற்றி வெப்துனியவில் சொன்னதுப் போல - நினைத்தாலே இனிக்கும், நினைத்தாலே கசக்கும்

Being not well for last two days (seasonal viral infection) has its advantages. Since I was at home without much work to do, I finally got some time to catch up on movies I have been wanting to see for some time. Yesterday it was “Ayan” and today I got to see “Quantum of Solace”.

Quantum of Solace is a direct sequel to the 2006 film Casino Royale. Daniel Craig's second performance as James Bond and he has done a fabulous job. I felt this film to be more of a regular action film than an usual 007 film which is all about gadgets/hi-tech tricks. The story line though little weak is on a contemporary topic of “Environment” with the bond battling a member of the Quantum organisation posing as an environmentalist who intends to stage a coup d'état in Bolivia to take control of its water supply.

சன் பிக்சர்ஸின் அயன் இன்று பார்த்தேன். கதையென்று பார்த்தால் கடத்தல் மாபியாக்களின் வழக்கமான மோதல்தான். தமிழில் ஆக்‌ஷன் படம் பார்த்து எத்தனை நாளாச்சு என சொல்ல வைக்கும் வேகம், தமன்னா அழகாக வந்து போகிறார், கேமரா அபாரம் - – இவை தான் படத்தின் பலம். மற்றப்படி வழக்கமானப் படம், பல முறைப் பார்த்த கதை, பல காட்சிகள் நம்மால் முன்னேயே யுகிக்க முடிகிறது. சுர்யா இதை விட நல்லயொரு கதையை தேர்வு செய்திருக்கலாம்.

அயன் – சூடுயில்லை.

சென்னை நேப்பியர் பாலம் இருக்கிற இடத்துக்கு அருகே நரிமேடு என்று ஒரு குன்று இருந்தது என்றால் நம்ப முடியுமா?

மவுண்ட் சாலை (இன்றைய அண்ணா சாலை) பளிச்சென இருக்கும். கையை வீசி நடக்கலாம். சைக்கிளில் செல்லலாம். போக்குவரத்து நெரிசல் கிடையாது என்றால் நம்ப முடியுமா?.

இந்த மாதம் சென்னைக்கு 370 வயது (22 ஆகஸ்டு 1639ல் ஆங்கிலயர்கள் இங்கே நிலம் வாங்கி அதற்கு அடுத்தாண்டு புனித ஜார்ஜ் கோட்டையை இங்கே கட்டினார்கள்), இதை முன்னிட்டுப் பல பத்திரிகைகளில் சென்னை வரலாறு மற்றும் பல சுவாரஸ்யமான தகவல்கள் வந்து கொண்டுயிருக்கிறது. இதில் எனக்கு பிடித்தது சென்னையின் பிரபலமான மூத்தவர்கள் தங்கள் நாபகங்களை தினமணியில் பகிர்ந்துக் கொள்ளும் தொடர். கீழே சில கட்டுரைகளின் பக்கங்கள்:

1. 30 August 2009 - திரு.ஏ.என்.எஸ்.மணியன்
2. 28 August 2009 – திரு.நவீனன்
3. 27 August 2009 - திரு.தி.க.சிவசங்கரன்
4. 26 August 2009 - திரு.மா.சு.சம்பந்தன்
5. 24 August 2009 - திரு.நல்லி குப்புசாமி

I have been using the default Audio system (Alphine) that came with my Honda city for last few years, I have done no customization or fitted any other accessory to the car. Unfortunately the Alphine default system doesn’t support USB or iPod connections. After I bought my iPhone I was feeling the need to have this connection option. So after procrastinating for a long time I went out recently (in June ‘09) and bought a new Audio system. It was a Pioneer FH-P6050UB double DIN system for Rs.15,750 inclusive of two Sony speakers and installation in two cars (putting the old Alphine system in my other car) from RadioWare House, Wallajah Road, Chennai. I was looking at other options – an Alphine double DIN but that supported only iPod, no USB connection, that would be too restrictive.

The Pioneer one I finally decided on had the USB connection support prominently shown, but for iPod/iPhone the box said you need a special cable but the seller didn’t know what that cable it is. I took a chance and bought it – it turned out to be fine. The cable was none other than the default USB cable used in iPhone for charging and connection to PC. If you have a iPod/iPhone I highly recommend this system. Excellent Audio quality and nice functionality.

Read in The Hindu few days back about an exhibition with display of British era items in Lalit Kala Academy, Greams Road Chennai – this place is near the Greams Road-Pantheon Road traffic signal, few hundred metres away from Apollo Hospital. The exhibition (free entry) which runs till tomorrow (August 30) features a collection of what the British have left behind – furniture, personalities and their ideas. The items in display are from private collection of Steve Borgia (chairman and managing director of INDeco Hotels).  Today I took my son in the morning and we spent a good part of a hour looking at the various items on display. The organizers have done a fine job of neatly categorizing items, clear sign boards for every item, provided handy cards which explained the items and had many volunteers who were happy to explain the significance of the items on display.

The exhibition had quite a collection of interesting items – Twin blade fan (first in this part of the world), first metal lunch box, a old coin-based shooting game for kids, picnic set, camera, printing press and more. See the entire photo album here that I took today. Some of the items (like the Fridge which runs on Kerosene oil) I had seen earlier in their Swamimalai resort during my vacation there few years back. 

While seeing the display, I was called to talk in Tamil for 30-seconds about the exhibition by Big FM Radio, which I did. Overall, an interesting hour spent, please take your kids to it.

I like the TV series – Star Trek. I find the episodes involving (imaginary) alien civilizations interesting as they offer a nice introspection in our globalized world without the baggage of reality. I first watched the series when HBO India started to air the Voyager (Captain Janeway) series and Next Generation (Captain Jean-Luc Picard) few years back. 

Today I watched the recently released movie version of “Star Trek”. The first half of the movie is little boring but the second half picks up speed and maintains the usual momentum of a star trek story.  Worth to watch in a DVD for star trek fans that’s all.

I have joined the rest of the world in posting common happenings in YouTube. Handling the camera for this 20 seconds itself, took me good amount of persuasion of my wife, so not sure whether I will post any more of these.

Video Description: Every year few days after the Ganesh Chathurthi (Birthday) celebrations, the clay idols are dropped in to water well or sea. It is a common tradition in many parts of India. The video shows me dropping the idol in our water well.Since the idols used in houses are made in clay with no chemicals added it is environmentally friendly too.

Technical Details: This video was recorded with Flip Ultra HD camera and I used the new “Windows Live Movie Maker” (WLMM) to edit the video and publish it to YouTube. You read it correct - WLMM now supports MP4 formats and a direct one button upload to Google’s YouTube.

Free is the new book by Wired Editor “Chris Anderson”. His earlier book “Long Tail” was an acclaimed work that is quoted in almost every conversation with the word “Web” in it over last few years.  This book’s title though had the potential to capture the same level of imagination, unfortunately doesn’t.

First, Chris Anderson should be congratulated for handling such a controversial topic like “Free”. Each of us have our own understanding of the word, how it works, whether it works or not and so on. In trying to answer these questions he has done a good job. He writes his findings on “Free” from history, culture, marketing to economics. He does a great job of explaining how “Free” became popular in modern days, its power and potential. He does a fine job of categorizing various near-zero business models and how they work with examples. He clearly disambiguates English word “Free” into “Gratis” (free of charge) and “Libre” (freedom), often people confuse between the two, especially in the software world. His re-quote of “Information wants to be free” is certainly true and thought-provoking.

Where he falls flat is in his generalizations and in his examples of success stories. For examples he repeatedly points only to Google and in few cases of open source software & Web 2.0. I am unable to shake off the feeling (of-course unfounded) the book could a PR campaign sponsored by the Mountain view chocolate factory (thanks Register UK for the term) Google. For me, Google certainly is not the epitome of “Free”, it makes its money by selling advertisements for hard-cash and that’s not free. Wikipedia and FireFox would have been more befitting candidates, but probably Chris Anderson felt obligated to Google – as he was using their free Google Docs to write this book (as he says himself).  To be fair to the author, he does quote in two places where Microsoft offers “Free” through its BizSpark program and Internet Explorer. I also fail to understand how he says Apple through its iPod wants content to be free so that it gets paid for the device. iTunes through the sales made from iPod and iPhone are the big money earners for Apple and it is not free!

The other area where I disagree with him is on what seems to be his attempt at equating “Piracy” to “Free”. “Piracy” is stealing, plain and simple. Though many of us may be guilty of the crime (knowingly or unknowingly) to various degree, it can’t be praised or supported. If in China music piracy is rampant, then it is the mistake of pricing, distribution and education. It is certainly not that people there will not buy Music. If Hulu.com and CBS.com today are making some money out of their advertisement driven site it is because the money from advertisements comes to the producers who made the shows, not to the pirates and other video sharing sites. If everyone in the world moves to “Pirated” version of watching TV shows from YouTube, then soon there will be no new professional TV shows to watch. Google too is very much aware of this threat, that’s why it is trying hard to woo producers into building legal channels for them on its site and share revenue with them. The real question is whether this money alone will be sufficient for producers to compensate for their investments. Even in the example the author begins his book, MontyPython group deciding to put their clips legally free in YouTube – they too made their money by selling legal versions of their CDs and DVDs. If their entire collection is made “free” in YouTube HD then how will they survive to make new episodes. The author leaves us with many of these questions unanswered.

A disclosure: I listened to the Audio book (unabridged) version that was offered free of charge by Wired from here. The e-book download seems to be time-limited (for a month and that’s over) and geography limited (US only) from here. Though I got the entire book free as an audio book, this limited free distribution of the e-book seems to be more a 20th century free, than the 21st century free that the author preaches throughout the book. He should have known better, he says repeatedly that “Free” is the most powerful marketing tool ever invented and he should have known to handle it with better for his book.

My recommendation: If you are in the Internet/Software business then this book is a must read, but for others you may want to think twice before opening your wallet to buy it. You may want to listen to the free audio book like I did :-)

படம் திரை அரங்கைவிட்டுச் சென்றுப் பல மாதங்கள் ஆகிவிட்டது, ஆனால் இன்று தான் நான் பார்த்தேன் - கொஞ்சம் லேட் தான். வில்லு விஜய் பிரபுதேவா காம்பினேஷன். போக்கிரியால் கவரப்பட்ட எனக்கு, இந்தப் படத்தின் மேல் ஒரு எதிர்ப்பார்ப்பு. எதிர்ப்பார்ப்பை மிக குறைவாகத் தான் பிரபுதேவா புர்த்திச் செய்துள்ளார், இன்னும் யோசித்து செய்துயிருக்க வேண்டும். போக்கிரியில் ஜெயித்தப் பல விஷயங்களை அப்படியே பயன்படுத்தியுள்ளார், அதனால் பல இடங்களில் பழையச் சோறு வாசம்.

சொல்லும்படி படத்தில் ஒன்றுமில்லை. விஜய் ரொம்ப உழைத்துயிருக்கிறார் – நடனக்காட்சிகளிலும், சண்டைக்காட்சிகளிலும் அவரின் உழைப்பு தெரிகிறது, திரைக்கதையில் இன்னும் கொஞ்சம் கவனமாக இருந்திருந்தால் படம் நன்றாக வந்திருக்கும். படம் பல இடங்களில் ஆங்கில ஜேம்ஸ் பாண்டு படங்களையும் உள்ளூர் அர்ஜுன் படங்களையும் நினைவுப் படுத்துகிறது. பெரிய அளவில், வெளிநாட்டிற்கு எல்லாம் சென்ற கதை கடைசியில் பலத் தமிழ் படங்களைப் போலவே ஒரு பழைய கோவிலில் முடிவது சப்பென்று போய் விடுகிறது.

தமிழ் சினிமாவில் எல்லா நாயகர்களுக்கும் எம்.ஜி.ஆர். மேல் பக்தியிருக்கலாம் தப்பில்லை, ஆனால் அவரோடு ஒப்பிட்டு/அவர் செய்ததையேச் செய்யக் கூடாதென்று என்று தான் புத்தி வருமோ?. வில்லு – அம்பில் கூர்மையில்லை, மொக்கை!

I have written in the past about lack of Tamil unicode rendering support in all popular smartphones (iPhone, Windows Mobile, Nokia). This week one of my colleague who uses a Windows Mobile 6.0 (HTC branded) phone showed me SkyFire browser.  SkyFire is a free mobile browser that uses a proprietary proxy server technology to encode all Web contents (Text, Images, Videos, Flash, Silverlight) at their server that gets rendered in the Mobile client. Because of this technology the individual device limitations don’t affect their ability to render any language.

 
(Mobile IE not able to render Unicode Tamil)

(Windows Mobile running Skyfire displaying fine Unicode Tamil web pages)

SkyFire is a great technology and seeing Tamil being rendering seamlessly makes me happy. But I am sceptical on the success of SkyFire – First, Mobile devices processing power are increasing every day to support iPhone Safari like true desktop browsers itself without need of a proxy server; Second, I don’t see a viable revenue model on how SkyFire will make money to run the operations especially the high server costs. Nevertheless a cool technology for now. If you have a Windows Mobile give it a try, better than waiting for IE 6.0 in Windows Mobile or WM 7.0 :-)